road_less_trvled
Stargazer's Stone and the Border Dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania:
Sir William Penn had served the Duke of York in the Dutch wars, and had loaned the crown about £16,000. His son William Penn who had become a Quaker, petitioned Charles for a grant of land north of the Maryland colony as repayment of the debt. In 1681 Charles granted Penn all the land extending five degrees west from the Delaware River between the 40th and 43rd parallels, excluding the lands held by the Duke of York within a “twelve-mile circle” centered on New Castle, plus the lands extending southward—the recaptured Dutch and Swedish colonies. Was this to be a twelve-mile radius circle, or a twelve-mile diameter circle, or maybe a twelve-mile circumference circle?—the language was unclear. And even the twelve-mile radius circle lies entirely below the 40th parallel. The Calvert family had ample opportunity to get the 40th parallel surveyed and marked, but never bothered to do so. Philadelphia itself was south of the 40th parallel, at the upper limit of deep-water navigability on the Delaware, and Pennsylvanian colonists were rapidly settling to the west and south of the city. In somewhat un-Quakerly fashion, Penn took maximum advantage of every ambiguity.
Penn needed to get his colony better access to the Atlantic, and in 1682 he leased the Duke of York’s lands from New Castle down to Cape Henlopen. Penn arrived in New Castle in October 1682 to take official possession of the “Three Lower Counties” on the Delaware Bay. He renamed St. Jones County to Kent County, and Deale County to Sussex County, and the Three Lower Counties were annexed to the Pennsylvania colony.
Penn negotiated with the third Lord Baltimore at the end of 1682 at Annapolis, and in April 1683 at New Castle, to establish and mark a formal boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania including the Lower Three Counties. The Calverts wanted to determine the 40th parallel by astronomical survey, while Penn suggested measuring northward from the southern tip of the Delmarva peninsula (about 37o 5’ N), assuming 60 miles per degree as Charles II had suggested. (The true distance of one degree of latitude is about 69 miles.) This would give Pennsylvania the uppermost part of the Chesapeake.
After the negotiations failed, Penn took his case to the Commission for Trade and Plantations. In 1685 the Commission determined that the land lying north of Cape Henlopen between the Delaware Bay and the Chesapeake should be divided equally; the western half belonged to the Calverts, while the eastern half belonged to the crown, i.e., to the Duke of York, and thus to Pennsylvania under Penn’s lease. The boundary between Maryland and the Three Lower Counties was now legally defined, but the east-west boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland remained unresolved.
Stargazer's Stone and the Border Dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania:
Sir William Penn had served the Duke of York in the Dutch wars, and had loaned the crown about £16,000. His son William Penn who had become a Quaker, petitioned Charles for a grant of land north of the Maryland colony as repayment of the debt. In 1681 Charles granted Penn all the land extending five degrees west from the Delaware River between the 40th and 43rd parallels, excluding the lands held by the Duke of York within a “twelve-mile circle” centered on New Castle, plus the lands extending southward—the recaptured Dutch and Swedish colonies. Was this to be a twelve-mile radius circle, or a twelve-mile diameter circle, or maybe a twelve-mile circumference circle?—the language was unclear. And even the twelve-mile radius circle lies entirely below the 40th parallel. The Calvert family had ample opportunity to get the 40th parallel surveyed and marked, but never bothered to do so. Philadelphia itself was south of the 40th parallel, at the upper limit of deep-water navigability on the Delaware, and Pennsylvanian colonists were rapidly settling to the west and south of the city. In somewhat un-Quakerly fashion, Penn took maximum advantage of every ambiguity.
Penn needed to get his colony better access to the Atlantic, and in 1682 he leased the Duke of York’s lands from New Castle down to Cape Henlopen. Penn arrived in New Castle in October 1682 to take official possession of the “Three Lower Counties” on the Delaware Bay. He renamed St. Jones County to Kent County, and Deale County to Sussex County, and the Three Lower Counties were annexed to the Pennsylvania colony.
Penn negotiated with the third Lord Baltimore at the end of 1682 at Annapolis, and in April 1683 at New Castle, to establish and mark a formal boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania including the Lower Three Counties. The Calverts wanted to determine the 40th parallel by astronomical survey, while Penn suggested measuring northward from the southern tip of the Delmarva peninsula (about 37o 5’ N), assuming 60 miles per degree as Charles II had suggested. (The true distance of one degree of latitude is about 69 miles.) This would give Pennsylvania the uppermost part of the Chesapeake.
After the negotiations failed, Penn took his case to the Commission for Trade and Plantations. In 1685 the Commission determined that the land lying north of Cape Henlopen between the Delaware Bay and the Chesapeake should be divided equally; the western half belonged to the Calverts, while the eastern half belonged to the crown, i.e., to the Duke of York, and thus to Pennsylvania under Penn’s lease. The boundary between Maryland and the Three Lower Counties was now legally defined, but the east-west boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland remained unresolved.